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Linda's dish sounded amazing - so glad she won (and that ice cream and granita didn't. Why didn't Justin change it up when the oranges didn't even taste like he imagined they would? Surely he could have added some other element.). The MasterchefAU instagram has a bit where the judges say what they would do with these options; Andy opted for chocolate/pistachio but would do a mole with them; both Jock & Mel went the sweet hibachi route. Jock recalled Amina's quail with pomegranate molasses glaze from a team challenge last year, and Mel was thinking pina coladas, so: caramelized roasted pineapple, coconut rum ice cream, lime granita ("and it would be glorious!"). (After I saw that I went looking for Amina's quail recipe but it doesn't seem to be on the MC website. The general idea seems pretty straightforward, though, and there are recipes from others online. It was in a service challenge, so I doubt her version was overly complicated. The flashbacks show all the judges loving it, with Mel coming around the judging table to give her a hug for it.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQx853rBWKG/

I wrote this before watching the most recent episode - and the judges really stepped up their critiques, I thought! So many times they have limited themselves to things like, "are you sure?" but this time the comments were a lot more substantive. I don't know if they were doing as much of this earlier on, and I just missed it; if they weren't able to do as much of this until the contestants were already at a certain level; or if they're getting better at that part of the role (a bit different dealing with amateur adults, as opposed to children or the all stars). Some of it may just be the show finding its way with the editing; with not that many people left, they have to focus more on what they're actually doing.

Also, Justin said something a couple of weeks that suggested he'd just been aiming for middle of the pack for the first half of the season, and at some point he realized that wasn't going to be good enough anymore. If Depinder played all her best cards at the beginning, Justin saved his (and picked up a bunch of new ones) for the end. The pacing also probably helped him avoid running out of steam. It's a bit risky, of course, as you can go home anytime, but if you're good enough, and you're not doing anything too crazy, early on you can usually count on somebody else to screw up. Late in the game, when everybody's very good, taking some risks is necessary if you're going to stand out, or even stay out of the bottom. I agree with your general point about the mentoring. I'm not persuaded they're as good at it as the last group of judges was (I don't think they have as good a feel for how much they can push them), but we're definitely seeing growth in those who are left. However, if you're isolated with a bunch of cooks for months, with no access to social media and little other outside stimuli, but lots of cookbooks around and other food-obsessed brains to pick, you ought to be picking up a lot of new ideas! I'm not sure that Depinder was less capable of adjusting so much as that she ran out of steam and was hampered by self-doubt at the end. The others' deference to her, and the multiple wins, show that she really was one of the true standout cooks of the season. However, the editing seems a bit heavy-handed on who we're supposed to root for and when (were Connor and Therese ever really that good? Or were we just supposed to be shocked that someone was leaving "early," and they thought these were personalities that the fanbase would gravitate towards?Not saying they weren't good, of course, just that maybe they were never all that likely to go much further, because of limitations they showed from the get-go.).

What an inspiring location. I've not generally been all that interested in the native ingredients (I'm not from Australia), but in that place, and with the people they've allowed us to hear from, and the food that Kishwar and Pete in particular were able to create in response to it - there's an emotional connection to the place even through my laptop screen. Well done, show. All three successful dishes looked wonderful to me (I worried a bit that Tommy's rushing would leave the flavors unbalanced in the end, but it was pretty clear all along from the editing that we were meant to see that Kishwar, Pete, & Tommy were cooking from a connection with the place, and that Depinder was having some trouble setting aside her fear that she wouldn't be able to do well and that this was holding her back. If I've been guided to root for Depinder to go home throughout the episode, she's going home - it would be too disruptive to the theme of the episode for that not to be the outcome.) I'm glad Depinder didn't go out on a bad dish, though, and that she had a wonderful run on the show. Pete is finally doing things that are not just intellectually interesting; here there was something that appealed to the heart as well as the brain. At this point everybody's acquitted themselves well and I'm fine with whatever order people go home in.

I don't think you can just count how many mistakes or limitations a dish may have (and we only hear some of the critique anyway, so who knows what the real count is) - it's how significant the flaws are, and whether the dish works well overall. And, I don't think it's that they couldn't taste pumpkin or walnut at all in Depinder's dish, but rather that the flavors were too muted. It certainly left her vulnerable. As for Minoli's, I don't think they explained it well enough, but the taste of green mango can be quite assertive (sour and/or bitter) and likely didn't blend well with the other flavors; and it certainly wouldn't pair with the flavors of the broth in the same way the noodles might have, or provide a similarly pleasing texture. She made the broth with the idea of pairing it with noodles, and it may have needed significant adjustment to pair with the mango, if it could work at all. So - I think it's that the noodles actively spoiled her dish - getting in the way of the things that worked - whereas Depinder's was just underwhelming. If Depinder had doused her cake in a clashing syrup, that would have been a more comparable error. Neither was successful, but neither was a complete disaster, and, as usual, they tried to keep it ambiguous enough about which flaws were worse that there would be some suspense about who was going home. In general, I'm not conspiracy-minded about this show. There are certainly judgment calls when things are close, but if they haven't explained their choices well enough for me to understand it, I don't assume that they made a dishonest call, just that they didn't explain themselves. Andy and Jock are often completely inarticulate about their reasoning, so the editors may not have a lot to work with in trying to make sense of things for viewers. I was expecting Depinder's problem to be time - that either the cake or the ice cream wouldn't be done. She should have known that pumpkin cake wouldn't have much flavor, though. It never does; it just makes the cake moist. Pumpkin cake needs spices to be of any interest. She would have needed some concentrated pumpkin flavor to complement it & bring it out - maybe some candied/caramelized pumpkin to go with it.

Good episode! My favorites remain my favorites (Kish, Linda, Tommy, Sabina, Depinder), although the order moves around & Depinder isn't at the top of it for me anymore. (Minoli was up there, too, for me, but oh, well). Justin & Pete look strong & deserving to be there, too, but I'm not as interested in their food. It was interesting to see Elise step it up at this stage - nice to see her taking the techniques she knows so well and branching out with more creative flavors. Have we ever seen any hint of her Sri Lankan heritage in her cooking? I don't know that it meshes well with the pasta focus, but I don't think she's drawn on that at all. Well, sometimes one side of the family just isn't very food-focused, I suppose, and it's probably a very hard thing to do well if you're not steeped in it. I wish they'd given Scott some more air time along the way. It's really kind of mystifying! We hardly even know he is, except that he seems like a really nice guy, cooks some more traditional food than some of the others, and blinks a lot. I don't even remember what, if any, aspirations he has going forward. Some sort of low-key cafe or restaurant in the countryside would seem to suit the vague image I've got, but it's really vague. There would be some desserts. Not sure what's for dinner. Fish, I suppose, because he just made fish, and I can't remember what he's done before. Sabina was delightful on the gantry. Nice to see her relaxed & happy again, and very attuned to all of the other contestants. Much better comments than we usually get from up there, I thought.

[deleting - realized I was responding to a weeks-old post]

I'm not sure why people have been so down on this group - I'm interested in what almost all of them cook, even though I'm not likely to attempt to reproduce the 40+-ingredient recipes that some of them put out. (I'd go to their restaurants instead, and let them do the cooking.) It took me a while to warm up to most of the crew (aside from Depinder, who was obviously a star from early on), but by mid-season a lot of them were looking very strong. (It helps that my top 6 are in the top 10.) At this point, are Scott & Elise the weak links? I have liked (what little we've seen of) Scott all along, but his braciole seemed a little unambitious, and simultaneously something that couldn't properly be done in the time allotted (so, he changed the cut of beef, but the dish suffered from it). He seems a solid middle of the pack guy. I like his soft spoken manner, but the fact he couldn't pronounce (or spell - see his instagram re his "bricole") - his partner's favorite dish, makes me wonder if perhaps he's not great at talking about his dishes, either. When we suddenly get a lot of focus on Scott, I suppose it will be a dead giveaway that he's a goner. Elise has been hit or miss for a while now (peaked early? already accomplished so hasn't had the room for growth?), but succeeding, or not, with the cannoli doesn't mean that much. I'm glad she got to give it a go, even if it didn't work, but even if it had I just wouldn't have been that impressed compared to some of the others, even though I love cannoli, & it's an undertaking. I've had a soft spot for Sabina all along so I'm glad she did so well this time! And I've also been a big fan of Depinder, Kishwar, Minoli, Linda & Tommy for quite some time, so obviously I'm pretty happy with who's left. (I can respect what Pete & Justin are doing even if I find the bromance & the over-reliance on concept a bit wearing. I do not need high concept PB&J, and frankly think the moment for that sort of thing may have passed anyway. It's useful to work on the techniques, though, I suppose.) I guess if people were tuning in for fancy desserts, it makes sense that they miss the people who were inclined towards that sort of cooking, but that's never been what I enjoy about Masterchef, so I don't miss it at all. Usually I spoil myself with the twitter thread but yesterday (for the vanilla challenge) I went in completely unspoiled & was surprised at how much more I enjoyed it. I'm going to try to exercise a little more self-control & do that more often as the season winds down. (who am I kidding? I will not pull this off.)

Sorry, @displayname, I probably should have tried to make my points without quoting you. Your comment was a good takeoff point for something I was wanting to say, and we do have some different points of view, I think, but I wasn't intending to disagree with you so much as to make a counterpoint. I get bored when (especially with desserts) fanciness is prized over taste - I think it actually gets in the way of doing certain things well. Minoli's wow point would have been pulling that off in the time allotted. Tommy's was flavor & texture & inspiration. Far better that than isomalt cellophane in my book, and I think Kishwar's, though lovely, may have suffered a bit from the time spent focused on decoration. On reflection, those very pretty cookies added a lot in visual impact but probably not much in flavor; in a longer cook where you can also work hard on the non-presentation aspects of the dish, they're a wonderful thing, but lots of pretty things on a plate is not more difficult, it's just a different focus on how to spend your time.

I was skeptical of it too, but he borrowed the recipe from one of the world's top restaurants. I'd try it there, but not if a friend or neighbor cooked it for me. (It's one of the many recipes Pete took from Christian Puglisi's book). So, I don't see manipulation, just an editing failure that leaves us unconvinced. Honestly, that still really sounds like a technique to allow you to eat every last bit of the fish if you're in a starvation situation, though, and I don't know how they expect us to believe otherwise if they're not going to just acknowledge where Pete is getting so many of his ideas; the only reason I trust them is that they don't come from him but from someone with an incredible track record, who does a better job of explaining why they work. "That's sick, dude!" doesn't cut it. (Or, "epic," "wow", etc.)

I disagree that "wow" has to be difficult technique & plating - and, for that matter, that there wasn't difficult technique & Minoli's or Tommy's dishes. When they prioritize technique over flavor, you end up with something that's just not that interesting to eat. I was surprised Kishwar had the issue with flavor, though, but she must not have wanted the vanilla to disrupt the traditional flavor profiles she was highlighting. (I'm used to kulfi either featuring condensed milk as the dominant flavor, or with the addition of mango, saffron, cardamom, or pistachio.) I wasn't sure about the critique of the texture, as the texture of kulfi is always different from that of ice cream, and pleasing in its own way. Perhaps it was off, but their description seemed to be complaining about things that are normal for kulfi.) I thought Tommy's actually looked very inviting once Jock had divvied it up and poured the syrup-y component over it. But agree about the "sick" comment! Pete & Justin can cook, but they're wearing on me, & technique for technique's sake bores me. Show me something I'd like to eat - which would be all of them except for Justin's.

I'll be contrarian. I still like Tommy, quite a lot! I respect Pete, and he seems like a nice guy, but I'm not particularly interested in his food. And Depinder had better not be going anywhere anytime soon. (I don't care one way or the other about Justin. He seems nice enough, but I agree the bro energy is a little tiresome if you're not part of the bro crew.) So, I hope Tommy or Depinder wins immunity, and Pete would be ok, too. It seems Brent, Pete, Amir & Justin were best buds, so all credit to all of them for being there for Brent; and good for Justin for starting to step up. It's possible he put more energy into being a good friend than into being a good cook for a stretch there, I suppose. I'm open to being persuaded he's better than he has seemed to be to this point, but they haven't given me much reason to believe it yet. Not being shown much until the late stages of the competition is fairly common for people who go very deep, though, especially when they don't seem to be natural narrators; but it's also consistent with them giving someone a moment in the spotlight right before they're out the door. With Justin wearing backward baseball caps all season long, it has finally occurred to me to wonder if he's simply covering an incipient bald spot. Has we ever seen him without a hat?

We really don't know what happened with Gabe at his restaurant, since nobody involved has chosen to say more. Sometimes (probably most of the time) losing a job is sufficient consequence for whatever happened (at least for those of us who are not party to any of it - those who are can sort it out amongst themselves, and apparently have done so). People can learn from their mistakes, especially when they have faced consequences; and sometimes losing a job wasn't actually a fair outcome. I don't know, so I'm not going to make any assumptions one way or the other. I'm noting the question mark, but I plan to just judge him based on what I see going forwards, which has been fine. People who have the choice of hiring him or not, or investing in his projects or not, will probably look into things more closely before making their own choices (is he a bad bet? was it just a situation that went bad once and won't likely happen again? etc.), but it's not anything I need to take a stand on.

Thanks for the link - I'm glad he's doing so much better. I found it courageous, and am glad he didn't let himself go further down that path without asking for help. It can be really hard to do when you're in that state of mind.

I've set sling to record new episodes, which it never does. It's just as well, because they don't show up there for ages, either (weeks, I think? That was the case but I've stopped looking.) I've always watched them on the Bravo website immediately after the episodes, and that's never failed me. (I'm on Pacific time, so perhaps there's a delay of a few hours if you're on the east coast.) Maybe Bravo is slow to release them to broadcasters in general.

Agreed - except that especially in the last three or four episodes, the characters are just doing so much shouting to get their points across. Bad acting, bad writing, bad direction, all three? I don't know, but it was almost enough for me to just give up on it. Ben has been the worst culprit but he's not alone. As in real life, yelling does not usually make your point more compelling, and here it has seemed to substitute for having a coherent argument: "I know I was wrong last time! But this time I'm sure I'm right! So you should believe me!!"

Count me as another "older" poster who sees insecurity rather than manipulation. Me too. A bit younger than the original poster, but I think 58 is in the same ballpark.

She was at a Portland restaurant before she went to Soter Vineyards, and while it may be an hour's drive from Portland, it nonetheless is only about 30 miles to the west. "Hauman, who was executive chef at Arden in the Pearl District before decamping for Soter Vineyards in Carlton in August 2019." https://www.pdxmonthly.com/eat-and-drink/2021/05/sara-hauman-dishes-on-her-time-at-top-chef-portland So, I don't consider it an unreasonable shorthand (and, fwiw, my parents grew up in Portland). The comparison made earlier about restaurants in Napa not being referred to as San Francisco: well, the French Laundry is twice as far away from San Francisco, and people know where Napa is, so you don't need shorthand. (I grew up in, and now live in, the North Bay, so I'm also familiar with how people use shorthand here). If you tell me "rural Oregon" I'm going to guess Pendleton or somewhere else quite a bit further from the city. When you're from a rural area or smaller town and you're trying to give someone a general idea of where it is, it's pretty normal to refer to the closest major city ("San Francisco area," "Portland area," "a little west of Portland" or something) and only get more specific if people are interested. And, for all we know, she still lives in Portland or a western suburb of Portland, or still thinks of herself as being from Portland - in that this is the place she's settled - and thinks of Soter Vineyards as just the current gig nearby. Portland is certainly, based on the article, the place she'll go for dinner, etc. (And by the way, the article indicates that she's starting a tinned fish company, like she talked about on the show).

Someone on reddit observed that Pete seems to be working his way through Christian Puglisi's book, Relæ: A Book of Ideas (then seemed to delete the posts, perhaps because they overstated their point - I don't think he was copying things verbatim, but they were right - the influence seems pretty clear and direct). I looked on Amazon & from the kindle version (sample just includes some descriptions; I'm not going to buy the book to check the full recipes) I'm fairly certain he drew on these recipes: carrot bearnaise (for his carrot steak); cod, kohlrabi, & skins (his cod dish on Sunday); lamb, turnip & samphire (he used saltbush); and probably his cucumber dumplings (cucumber, caraway & lemon), and the crayfish onions, although I didn't specifically find a matching recipe title for that (the sample didn't get to his entry on seafood). (I also saw some photos, including one of the carrot dish, but I don't remember whether that was at Amazon or elsewhere). There's nothing wrong with that - everybody else is also drawing on things they've read about or cooked before, too - and he's doing this without the recipes in front of him & surely making some adjustments - but he's not pulling these ideas out of thin air, either. (Why would anybody think he'd come up with the fish skin idea without having read it somewhere? And possibly tried it out at some point.) It's very high end cooking and I knew the style looked very familiar but didn't realize it was specifically one chef that he had been leaning quite heavily on. Once it was pointed out, though, I remembered the various cooking shows that had visited the restaurant in Copenhagen (Masterchef UK or Masterchef UK: The Professionals; don't remember who else, but I've seen them at least twice). The style is very clever, very distinctive (also clearly draws on Puglisi's experience working at Noma) and has been influential, and it's not at all surprising that someone with Pete's sensibilities would be drawn to it. So, creative? Well, it's a little close to the original, but he's in a learning phase with this stuff, I think, and is definitely trying things others haven't in the kitchen, and I don't think the things he's trying are easy to execute well. But it's not really more original than others drawing on their heritage and cooking variations of dishes they may have done before. It's just a different source of inspiration. I'm sure it's felt like a high risk strategy - will it work, or won't it? - but so far it seems like when he goes to this well, he's found success with it.

We've had 35 episodes and still have 14 of 24 contestants - no wonder it's dragging. I like everybody but I wish we were down to 10. (edit: I checked yesterday when we are at 34 episodes and 15 contestants - looks like normally at that point we are down to about 12 (including any returnees, whether they had returned yet or not). I wasn't rigorous about this, but enough to confirm that this is an outlier).

I thought Karen from Finance missed an opportunity to call her daughter Sharon (from HR was my guess). (Not just for the rhyme - Karen was the #2 girls' name in Australia in 1960, and Sharon was #7). The rugby guys were great, though, and I enjoyed most of the interactions. I kind of appreciated the shade Art was getting for ignoring her partner during the makeup, but I thought the outfits did the work of making them sisters and didn't particularly notice any issues with the makeup in the end. I did not enjoy how left out Craft seemed to be feeling while Art was spending so much time on himself, though (I don't recall the guy's actual name, just the apt choice of drag name). I also loved how Elektra Shock didn't even look at Scarlett after she won the lip synch and went back to stand next to the rest (and right next to Elektra Shock). Both Art & Scarlett are wearing out their welcome with me (well, Scarlett has, and Art is getting there even though I find him funny - but he hasn't done enough to justify the unexplained reinstatement, and I find myself wondering if he threatened to sue or something. There was some suggestion that he had yelled about having been promised a better outcome when he was kicked off.) Can't argue with Maxi being in the bottom. She was lovely with her partner & set everybody up nicely, but I wish she'd chosen better outfits for the both of them. I was skeptical of her at the outset - hers and Elektra Shock's were the two intro outfits I didn't care for - but both she and Elektra Shock have really grown on me. I think they both will have won a lot of new fans from having done the show.

Who's to say the group session is the only help they're getting? I would assume it's supplemental to whatever else they may need/want. (And I assume it is during hours when the library is closed. Although someone pointed out that the sun appeared to be up during at least one session, it's entirely possible that some branches of the Toronto library system (there are many) aren't open every day, or it could be a university or other institutional library at a time when school is out of session or workers have the weekend off, etc.)

Happy to, and I'll keep it going for tomorrow night as well because I fell a little more in love with him tonight. I'm right there with you, but he once again demonstrated that he likes to take big risks. The canelés could have failed just like the crocodile did (although he was of course at least on familiar territory this time). I like him, but if he gets back in, I suspect that sooner or later that penchant for risk-taking is going to take him down again.

I didn't care about them being gloomy (it didn't even particularly jump out to me). But there was no coherence - it was just random mystery of the week, one and done, with no hint of anything really tying it together until perhaps the two-parter with Shelby & his twin sister. The only three episodes that grabbed me enough to make me care whether or not there was a second season were those two and the finale. I had no idea whether there was any sort of theory behind it, or if the debris was just an excuse for a set of barely connected plots in which weird things happen because [look over there! something from space! because people watch sci fi shows even if they don't make any sense!].

Maybe they have different comfort levels with hugging etc. - I'm not sure when this was filmed relative to various stages of Australia's mostly very good record with Covid, but some people are more risk averse than others, and it can be hard to dial your caution levels up and down as situations (and recommendations) change. I figure they've decided hugs are now allowed, but obviously they're not mandatory. The elbow habit that was widely followed for a while may still feel more comfortable than a high five, etc., especially with someone you've only ever exchanged elbow bumps with. Etc. I just figure I give everyone latitude on how they handle it. We've had it much worse here in the States, but now that I'm vaccinated etc. it's still a bit of an adjustment, as you don't know other people's status or how they feel about it (especially as it was so politicized), and it's weird to re-navigate the rules for things you haven't done in a year. In other words, awkward is normal for the time being. And they don't have to all be on the same page at the same time - or even, individually, on the same page from moment to moment.